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IN DAKOTA, | 39 
more capital, but they, too, were discounting nothing 
but short time paper. Bragdon was a director in one 
of these, and of course that settled my business there. 
He did not want me to get the money. He wanted 
my farm. 
There was another thing that I have no doubt 
operated against me: my building that house was 
regarded as a piece of extravagance, and evidence of 
a lack of business prudence and sagacity. I was 
comfortable in the little house, and ought to have 
lived in it at least another year, and so escaped this 
embarrassment. Pride built it, and “ pride goeth be- 
fore a fall.” Money lenders don’t like to make loans 
to men who have given such evidence of the lack of 
common business prudence. And so the day of sale 
arrived. The property was to be offered in front of 
the sheriff's office, “‘ between the hours of ten o’clock 
A. M., and four o’clock p. m.,” so read the advertise- 
ment. [resolved to go and see who bought it, hop- 
ing most fervently that somebody might outbid 
Bragdon, though that was hoping against hope. 
Those who had the money and might happen to 
want the place, would not like to bid against him, 
for he would never forget it, and he was a bad man 
to have as an enemy. So I went to the county seat, 
feeling on the way very much as if I was going to 
my own funeral. 
THE SHERIFF'S SALE. 
At eleven o'clock the sale was “called.” There was 
